Aquaponics is a relatively new technology, and BKO is on the forefront of implementing it. In order to create successful prototypes, Enzo conducted research with the Filipino Department of Agriculture and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources. Enzo has taken this knowledge to work in the Metro Manila area educating communities on urban agriculture, and is actively presenting his work with urban agriculture at sustainability conventions.

“Our mission is to spread the technology as far and wide as we can, building farms in places that need it most, for people that do not have regular access to healthy food,” said Enzo.

Urban Container Gardening is an initiative that hopes to help boost food security in the country.

By IOsaOnse
CNN
Jan 14, 2014

Excerpt:

For 43-year old Helen Camacho of Purok 13, Barangay Tibungco, Davao City, it is an income-generating hobby. “I started off with only 20 seedlings of chinese cabbages. I, also, go to the nearby cemetery to gather and recycle tetra packs,” shared Helen.

From 20 pechay seedlings, Helen now has over 70 pechay seedlings along with other crops that she cultivates in their house. To make soil containers, Helen personally sews the tetra packs that she gathered from the cemetery. She even forges her own makeshift racks. “Urban Container Gardening is a huge help. I will really strive to improve my garden more”, said Helen excitedly.

Team Bahay Kubo Organics hopes to bring communities together at the center of the growing and selling process by empowering them with urban aquaponic farming.

Bahay Kubo Organics seeks to provide solutions for environmental degradation. This project is particularly concerned with environmental degradation caused by waste by-products from traditional farming. Other problems this project seeks to address are the disruption of food supplies from weather volatility, lack of nutrition, and limited livelihood opportunities for communities. It proposes the use of an aquaponics farming system, and hopefully bring communities together at the center of the growing and selling processes.

Cebu’s population is always on the rise while only three percent of its total lands are classified as agricultural lands.

By Fayette C. Rien
Philippine Information Agency
6th of March 2012

CEBU CITY, March 6 (PIA) — Agriculture officials here urged metro residents to do urban gardening and plant vegetables in their backyard or in plain pots to address the insufficient supply of high-value crops in the region.

Jorge Paculba, chief of the crops division of the Department of Agriculture (DA) 7 said the region is only about 56 percent sufficient in vegetables or high-value crops and that most of our supply is imported from other regions.

“A rising population sparking greater demand for vegetables and the existing 89 hotels plus pension houses and 116 restaurants in Cebu make it hard to achieve self-sufficiency in high-value crops,” Paculba declared.

Unknowingly, farming can also be done right in the city. Experts call this practice as urban agriculture.

“Urban agriculture refers not merely to the growing of food crops and fruit trees but that it also encompasses the raising of animals, poultry, fish, bees, rabbits, guinea pigs, or other livestock considered edible locally,” explains Dr. Irene Tinker, an American professor in the department of city and regional planning at the University of California.

The Aquinas University of Legazpi (AUL) has implemented a project dubbed “Urban Agriculture through the High-Value Commercial Crops Techno-Demo Farm” within its expansive campus here.

The project features 60-square-meter greenhouse where vegetables highly sensitive to rain and changes in temperature like broccoli, lettuce, cauliflower and honeydew melon are being propagated.

Gardens for more hardy vegetables such as squash, eggplant and watermelon were also established in an open area of 1,000 square meters whose perimeters were planted to rootcrops like ubi and sweet potato.

Executive Order No. 776
Rolling Out The Backyard Food Production Programs In The Urban Areas

WHEREAS, two-thirds of the world is in recession, though the Philippines is not;

WHEREAS, it is not business as usual; government agencies must hit the round running;

WHEREAS, the government should take advantage of the window of opportunity, i.e. declining inflation and interest rates and good weather;

WHEREAS, the government has committed Three Hundred Billion Pesos (P300,000,000,000.00) to economic stimulus programs, including comprehensive livelihood and emergency employment program (CLEEP), that will save or create millions of new jobs.

WHEREAS, part of CLEEP consists of backyard food production programs like Gulayan ng Masa and the Integrated Services for Livelihood Advancement (ISLA) for subsistence fisherfolk.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GLORIA M. ARROYO, President of the Philippines, by the power vested in me by law, do hereby order:

This Philippine Allotment Garden Manual is a product of research and extension activities of the Periurban Vegetable Project (PUVeP) of Xavier University College of Agriculture in cooperation with the city government of Cagayan de Oro, barangay administrations, local communities as well as universities and local government units from Germany and Belgium.

Planning Report for Naga City Council June 2007
Kathryn Hill, Department of Geography, UBC
Dee Dee Quinnelly, School of Community and Regional Planning, UBC
Kaitlin Kazmierowski, School of Community and Regional Planning, UBC

Naga is a mid-size city of 150,000 residents in Bicol region, central Philippines. It is internationally and nationally renowned as among the ‘best practices’ in good local governance in the Philippines and in the developing world.

Naga City currently sits in an interesting position with regards to local UA (urban agriculture) practices. Despite being enclosed by rich agricultural lands, encroaching development and social stigmatization of farmers pose serious threats to the future of local agriculture in the city.

By Michaela Cabrera, Reuters, May 28, 2008 – With prices of food items reaching record-highs in Philippines, residents in poor areas in Manila plant vegetables in their backyards to save on food expenses and harvest enough to sell at a local market. See video story here.

For green thumbs living in Manila, urban farming is the answer to soaring food prices. It may seem impossible to grow lettuce and eggplant in a crowded, humid environment, but city living has not stopped farmers like Bernabe Atenta from cultivating greens. He and his wife Virgie literally pick out their lunch from their backyard.

“This helps a lot, in securing your family’s welfare. You don’t need to buy vegetables in the market. If all people here in Manila planted vegetables even in pots, it will ease some expenses,” Atenta said.

Along with the IDRC and the RUAF, Urban Harvest, headquartered in Lima, Peru, is a major centre for international urban agriculture development. This recent publication, 2007, is available for download as a 64 page PDF (3.2MB).

“Although many migrants move to cities in the
expectation of more and better-paid jobs than in the
country-side, we know that many cities have as much as
90% informal employment, meaning occasional and
precarious opportunities for earning income. Urban crop
production and livestock-keeping have been shown to be
complementary activities to casual non-farm work for
many families and improving their income-generating
potential can help them move out of poverty.

“It has really helped us because we bring home food to our families and we also have a source of income out of vegetables harvested,” said Mr. Flores. “For every harvest, the lowest net income per family is P500,” he said noting income depends on the yield and frequency of harvest of crops planted. He cited that eggplant has an estimated minimum harvest of 10 kilograms a week. “We sell eggplant at P18/kg,” said Mr. Flores. “In the market, eggplant sells at P20/kg.”

Edible City is a fun, fast-paced journey through the local Good Food Movement that’s taking root in the San Francisco Bay Area, across the nation and around the world. Introducing a diverse cast of extraordinary and eccentric characters who are challenging the paradigm of our broken food system, Edible City digs into their unique perspectives and transformative work— from edible education to grassroots activism to building local economies— finding hopeful solutions to monumental problems. Inspirational, down-to-earth and a little bit quirky, Edible City captures the spirit of a movement that’s making real change and doing something truly revolutionary: growing the model for a healthy, sustainable local food system.